CHAPTER VIII.
"Soft you; a word or two before you go.
......
I pray you in your letters,
When you these unhappy deeds relate.
Speak of me as I am—nothing extenuate."
Shakspeare.
IN giving a concluding sketch of the state of Victoria, we are compelled to curtail many matters of interest which occurred during the past year, and from the date at which we commenced our remarks. To take up, then, the thread of our narrative from the conclusion of the Ballaarat disturbances, we find that no further act of insubordination occurred either there or at any other of the Gold Fields. Public meetings were, indeed, held at many places, for the purpose of sympathizing with the "men of Ballaarat," as they were called, and for agitating in favour of the prisoners arrested on the charge of high treason, as in a former chapter alluded to. All these meetings, however, passed off peaceably—a result due to the prudent conduct of the authorities, and the prompt measures taken by the Legislature, who seemed now, at least, determined to have justice done to all parties; to fix the constitution of autho-
